Macros

[GThames]

I just updated from Clarisworks 5 to Appleworks 6. For the life of me I can't find how to record macros. Is this no longer availbe in AW?

[haumann]

I just updated from Clarisworks 5 to Appleworks 6. For the life of me I can't find how to record macros. Is this no longer availbe in AW?

Yes and no.

AW6, under OS X is incapable of macro recording/playback. But if you coax AW6 to run under OS 9, you will have access to the macro capabilities. Although you don't have to be able to start-up your Mac in OS 9, you do, at least, have to have the ability to run OS 9 in "Classic" mode under OS X. If you can do the former, just boot into OS 9 and open the AW6 application -- it will launch AW 6.2.8 which has macro capability. I assume that you ran AW5 on this machine, so you do have OS 9 installed.

If you want regular access without having to reboot in and out of OS 9, find the AppleWorks application in the Finder, press the control key and click once on the application's icon to open the contextual menu. Select Show Package Contents. Double-click on the "Contents" folder to open it, and look for the folder named "MacOSClassic". Open it, and you will see the AW6 application icon that you need. If you plan to access it on a regular basis from OS X, make an alias to it (and label the alias so you'll know this is the to "classic" version), and put it where you can find it without having to dig.

John@was

[thou000]

I recall having the ability to record macro's on really old versions of Clarisworks and DOS based pc spreadsheets. Isn't the lack of this a pretty serious drawback in "the latest and greatest" version of Appleworks. Does Apple have anything to say about the status of this particular functionality in Appleworks? Or perhaps there is another better way to go about achieving the same thing? I'll have to examine automator - maybe that's apple's solution.

[Dale]

I recall having the ability to record macro's on really old versions of Clarisworks and DOS based pc spreadsheets. Isn't the lack of this a pretty serious drawback in "the latest and greatest" version of Appleworks. Does Apple have anything to say about the status of this particular functionality in Appleworks?

If I recall the AppleWorks Read Me document and Help simply says that the macro functionality is missing in the Mac OS X version.

Or perhaps there is another better way to go about achieving the same thing? I'll have to examine automator - maybe that's apple's solution.

The only other ways to do this are: write AppleScripts to do these things, or use a macro program like QuickKeys or Keyboard Maestro.

Automator won't work with AppleWorks because no one has written Automator Actions for it.

Dale

[haumann]

I recall having the ability to record macro's on really old versions of Clarisworks and DOS based pc spreadsheets. Isn't the lack of this a pretty serious drawback in "the latest and greatest" version of Appleworks. Does Apple have anything to say about the status of this particular functionality in Appleworks? Or perhaps there is another better way to go about achieving the same thing? I'll have to examine automator - maybe that's apple's solution.

The "latest and greatest" version of AW is fundamentally a maintenance update to AW5 (I'm guessing Apple has some higher priority irons in the fire just now). There's no argument that AppleWorks is legacy software, and better things are coming. If you need macros while using this legacy software, that capability is still there (as I described in an earlier response). If you are a serious user of AW, its former functionality (and all the goodness you've become accustomed to) is still there. If you're only a casual user of AW, and just want the "latest and greatest", well, we'll just have to wait and see what develops as the iWork package matures.

Dale has already mentioned what Apple has to say about the macro functionality in AW6.

John@was